Parties set out their positions on PSHE

Last week, Cosmopolitan UK magazine quizzed representatives from the main parties about their positions on readers’ key election priorities - one of which was statutory PSHE.

Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green Party leaders Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and Natalie Bennett agreed that the subject should be statutory. While the Conservatives' Nicky Morgan said PSHE was 'an important part of the curriculum', she did not commit to statutory status. UKIP’s Suzanne Evans said sex and relationships education should only be taught after age 11 and be left to parents before this age.

Watch the full clip below or keep scrolling to read the highlights.

Ed Miliband, Labour

Are you going to put PSHE as statutory in schools?

"Yes we would, I think it is right to have sex and relationships education for primary and secondary schools, it’s got to be age-appropriate."

"I think we’ve got massive challenges…in the way men and women are viewed in our society and PSHE is actually one of the best means in terms of school, of young people knowing that men and women are equal and to see men and women in the right light"

"Education for me is about passing exams, of course it is, but it's also about preparing young people for life and that's everything from mental health to the type of society we live in to all of the challenges."

"What we plan to do is introduce sex education at age 11, partly because we also think it’s up to the family, so I very much took the view when I was bringing up my own daughter that I wouldn’t lie to her about anything and that if she asked those difficult questions, that we would talk about them but in a way that I felt was age-appropriate to her."

"Well the Green Party not only intends to make PSHE a statutory part in all state schools, Caroline Lucas, the Green MP has already been working on this and has a Bill before Parliament."

"Children feel like they’re being pushed through exam after exam on academic subjects but we’re really not preparing pupils for life, by not giving them sex and relationships education in particular…but also things like personal finance, first aid, nutrition, food, there’s a whole range of preparation for life that we’re simply not giving our pupils and PSHE really covers a lot of that territory."

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